Doctor Killed in NYC Shooting Died Helping a Co-Worker

Authorities have identified the doctor killed Friday when a former employee went on a rampage at a New York City hospital as Dr. Tracy Tam, 32, of Queens. She was a family medicine doctor assigned to the department of psychiatry. Tam normally worked in a clinic and had Friday off, but was covering a co-worker's shift at the hospital. She had been working for the hospital close to a year, and was "well-liked by the hospital staff," Bronx Lebanon Hospital Vice President Errol C. Scheer said Saturday.

Scheer added that five of the six people who were critically wounded Friday had improved and are now listed as stable. One physician remains in critical condition.

Dr. Henry Bello was fired from the hospital two years ago for threatening a co-worker. Dr. Maureen Kwankam told the Daily News Bello said at the time he'd be back.

"We fired him because he was kind of crazy. He promised to come back and kill us then."

Records showed Bello as having an East Village address, but neighbors told the Daily News he hadn't been seen in a year and a half. Other sources told CBS New York that he had been living in California during that time period and recently returned to New York City.

The New York Post reported that he was living in a homeless shelter, where a fellow resident said Bello complained about his former co-workers and felt picked on and manipulated.

Two hours before the shooting the Daily News received an email from Bello, who blamed two doctors there for ruining his career.

Criminal records show a pattern of predatory and aggressive behavior.

In unrelated cases, the doctor pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor, in 2004 after a 23-year-old woman told police Bello grabbed her, lifted her up and carried her off, saying, "You're coming with me." He was arrested again in 2009 on a charge of unlawful surveillance, after two different women reported he was trying to look up their skirts with a mirror. That case was eventually sealed.

Bello showed up at the hospital Friday with a rifle tucked under a white lab coat. He shot seven people before turning the gun on himself.